


Passing Friendship

by Selkies_song



Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Bittersweet, But only a little, Canon Divergent, Found Family, Friendship, Grief, Sad, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28536570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selkies_song/pseuds/Selkies_song
Summary: Dampé the gravekeeper never missed a night of work. Even though it was raining, it would be business as usual…or so he thought.A short, bittersweet story about an unlikely friendship.
Kudos: 1





	Passing Friendship

Rain again. Dampé rolled his eyes at the sound of it drumming on the roof of his little graveyard shack. This was the third night in a row.

It wasn’t as if anyone would notice if he took a night or two off from his grave-keeping duties, but he took his job very seriously. Rain, snow, hail—it didn’t matter. He would go out and see that things were done. Flowers needed to be groomed, gravestones needed to be kept free of dirt, and he knew the grass was due to be trimmed along the edges of the cemetery. So as soon as he was done with his evening tea, he threw on his coat, grabbed his lantern and hobbled out into the chilly, wet night.

Like every other night, he started down at the far end near the entrance to the Shadow Temple. It seemed important to him that he make sure the royal gravestone was well tended first and foremost. While working in the dark of night only made it more difficult, he preferred the quiet and solitude; A lifetime’s worth of people’s disgust and horror at his appearance had left him favoring the life of a recluse.

As the night wore on, he started to work his way closer and closer back to his own hut. It wasn’t until a couple of hours before dawn that a soft blue light caught the corner of his eye. Startled, he turned and peered in that direction, but the light had vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Dampé squinted, raising his lantern up slightly, and began to hobble over in that direction; while he didn’t see the light anymore, there seemed to be some kind of dark mass that he couldn’t recall being there. The closer he got, the more he realized he wasn’t imagining things. The orange glow of his lantern fell on a young boy, lying on the ground. Eyes wide, Dampé slowly moved closer, lifting his lamp higher to get a better look.

The child wasn’t moving, and from the looks of him, he’d been there most of the night. Blond hair was soaked and plastered against the pale skin of his face. He wore nothing but a short sleeved tunic that was drenched and sucked tight to his skin, boots and a kind of long cap.

Concerned, Dampé slowly reached forward, unable to help fearing that the boy was dead, when suddenly a blinding blue light came from nowhere and started flying crazily around him.

“Stay away from him! You leave him alone!” The voice was small, feminine, and very upset.

Dampé rose his free hand in a gesture of peace as he stumbled back. “Now now, settled down, I ain’t gonna hurt him. He'sa gonna catch his death bein’ out here though, if he innit dead already.”

The fairy seemed to understand and backed off, though she continued to hover protectively over the still form. After a moment or two, Dampé edged forward again and reached toward the boy. “Is'e breathin’?”

“Yes…” The fay sniffled. “Please, can you help him?”

“I can try.” The old grave-keeper set his lantern down just long enough to carefully heave the boy over his humped shoulders before shuffling his way back to his hut.

* * *

It took three days.

Dampé had been seriously considering going out into the world he’d shunned in search of a doctor. Despite constant care, the boy’s condition had only seemed to worsen; he was fevered and his breath rasped. There had been several occasions where Dampé had gone to sleep, fearing that he would wake to find that he needed to dig a new grave.

But on that third night, just as dusk fell over Hyrule, the boy stirred.

The fairy, Navi, cried out in joy and relief, drawing the old man’s attention to the bed. Link, as she’d called him, turned his head a little, brows furrowing as he slowly came around.

Letting out a quiet breath of his own, Dampé set his teakettle back on the stove before hobbling over. With a concerned frown, the old man reached to rest his palm on the child’s forehead. Still warm, but not as bad as before.

Link’s eyes widened suddenly and he jerked back with a startled cry. Dampé withdrew his hand and looked down to see blue eyes peering fearfully back up at him. While not a reaction he wasn’t used to, it still sent a small pang through the old man’s chest.

“I may look like a monster kid, but I’m not a bad guy,” he reassured gruffly.

“Link, it’s okay, he’s been helping you,” Navi added.

The boy blinked, taking in the old man’s deformed face again. He’d calmed immensely, trusting the fairy’s word, but he still seemed dazed. “Wh-where am I?”

“You’re in my house. At the Graveyard in back of Kakariko,” Dampé replied. He turned and shuffled to the other end of the room when the tea pot began to whistle. “You'been sick a few days at least. When I found ya, you’d been lyin’ out in the rain for Nayru only knows how long. What’s the matter with ya’? Ain't ya got any sense? Autumn nights are cold aroun’ here and you’re out wearin’ nothin’ but that?”

Link’s already flushed cheeks reddened further from the lecture. “S-sorry.”

“Eh, never mind,” Dampé grumbled as he walked back. “Here. Drink up. Then maybe you can tell me a bit about why you’re out here to begin with.”

For the next hour or so, Dampé listened to the boy’s tale. Most of it he could hardly believe. For a while he was convinced that this child was simply gifted with a wild imagination, but then he really took in the subtle clues; the sense of fear and grief in the boy’s eyes when he spoke of the death of his deity, the very real sword and shield that were crusted with blood and filth lying only feet away, the fresh scar on his cheek.

And then the boy reached into his satchel and pulled out a wrinkled piece of parchment to hand to the old man. It was a note from the Princess herself—he recognized the royal seal stamped in wax.

It dawned on Dampé suddenly that this boy was alone, with no where to go. It was no wonder that he’d found him collapsed in the graveyard, sick and chilled to the bone.

“Well kid, here’s the deal,” the grave keeper grumbled, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen when Link had finished. “Since I’ve been tendin’ to ya’, I expect ya’ to return the favor. I could use a hand around here. A'course since you’ll be helping me you can sleep here and I suppose I could feed ya, too. Scrawny thing like you, I suppose you don’t eat that much…” He smiled inwardly at the mix of confusion and relief in the boy’s eyes.

“Okay, but I gotta find the other two stones for the Princess too.”

“Well, I suppose you can go do that, too. But I expect you here now and then to help!”

The boy nodded. “I will, mister, I promise.”

“And that’s another thing. You’ll call me Dampé, got it?”

“Yes s—-I mean, Dampé.”

“That’s better. Finish up that tea and get some rest. No sense it doin’ anything right now. It’s rainin’ up a storm, and you won’t be goin’ nowhere until that fever breaks.”

The boy didn’t argue, and merely sipped on the tea until he felt he could no longer keep his eyes open. Satisfied that the boy was resting and would be alright, Dampé shrugged on his coat and headed out to catch up on his work.

* * *

As the boy grew stronger, he began to emerge and help Dampé with his nightly chores. The old grave-keeper adjusted his hours to be slightly earlier, concerned for the boy’s well-being, and while there was the occasional visitor in the early evening hours, he found he didn’t mind so much with Link’s company.

The boy was proving incredibly helpful, as well; he seemed eager to return the favor, and his youth gave him the edge with certain tasks that Dampé had found to be more difficult as of late.

After a few days though, Link hesitantly announced that he had to get going; The Princess was still waiting for him to gather the spiritual stones, and he still believed it to be an important undertaking that he couldn’t put off any longer.

Dampé was surprised to feel the pang of regret at the kid’s imminent departure, but forced himself to nod. “Well, I suppose that’s alright,” he grumbled. “But I still expect you to come back here and check in with me,” he ordered. Link grinned in response, accustomed to the man’s gruff sort of affection by now.

“I will, Dampé, I promise.”

“Well then, off with ya. Take some food with ya, though, alright?”

The blond nodded, still grinning. Quite suddenly he burst forward and hugged the older man tightly around the waist in gratitude. Dampé blinked in shock, and after a moment, awkwardly reached down to ruffle the boy’s hair with one small, bony hand. “Alright alright, ‘nuff of the touchy feely stuff. Ya better get goin’, don’t wanna keep that princess of yours waitin’.”

“C'mon, Link! Let’s go!” Navi agreed, and with a final wave, the boy was gone.

Dampé watched the empty path for a long while, the sudden quiet and isolation moving in like an unwelcome storm cloud. With a heavy sigh, he turned and shuffled back inside to sleep, deciding it would be best to fall back into his old routine. Deep down he really did hope the boy would return, but he wasn’t about to allow himself to dwell on it.

* * *

Nearly a week had passed since Link had left. Dampé was roused a few hours before dusk by a timid knock on his door. Frowning, he rolled out of bed and went to answer, only to start in surprise when he found Link on the other side, his fairy companion hovering nervously over him. He was dirty and scuffed up pretty good, blistering patches of burns visible on his exposed skin, and clearly exhausted.

“Sweet Nayru, boy-get in here,” the old man urged, reaching down to put a guiding hand on Link’s back. The blond seemed a little sheepish behind the weariness, but didn’t protest, allowing Dampé to steer him into a nearby chair where he could try to patch him up. “What happened?” he asked as he tossed some water on the stove to heat, before shuffling back over with some bandages and a damp cloth.

“I got the Spiritual Stone,” Link replied, sounding pleased with himself despite the tired, pained edge in his voice. “The Gorons had it…they wanted me to help them in exchange for it, so I did.”

“Din, what’d they make ya’ do?” Dampé demanded with dismay. “You look like ya took a dive in the volcano, for Goddesses’ sake.”

The boy winced as the grave-keeper scrubbed the blood from a rough scrape on his arm. “I had to clear the dondongos out of their caverns so they could start harvesting rocks to eat, again.”

Dampé turned his wide eyes up to the boy, his elongated jaw dropping in disbelief. “You did _what?!_ ” he croaked. “Boy, are you crazy? Those things burp out fire like it ain’t nothin’…you coulda been killed!”

“Tell me about it,” Navi muttered anxiously, fluttering over to perch on the back of the chair over Link’s shoulder.

The boy looked down slightly, discouraged. “I couldn’t just let them starve…” he wheedled quietly.

After a long moment, still stunned at what the kid had done and the danger he’d been in, Dampé heaved a heavy sigh and returned to the task of patching the boy up. “…crazy as it is, that takes some guts, kid,” he murmured after an awkward silence.

It did the trick, though; Link perked up again, looking a little less cowed after the compliment.

“That’s the best I can do,” the old man sighed after good while, looking over his work; most of the boy’s arms and legs were now wrapped with clean white bandages. “Hungry?”

He wasn’t surprised to see emphatic nodding; the kid looked peckish, at best. Considering how close Death Mountain was, he suspected Link had been in those caverns for most of the week, and it wasn’t like the Gorons had the capacity to feed a growing child.

Luckily he had all the ingredients needed for a basic stew. He felt a sort of relief to see the boy eat his fill before settling in to sleep on the spare cot Dampé had dragged out for him. Despite having not known this kid for long, he felt a sort of duty to watch over him.

Goddesses knew _someone_ had to.

* * *

“Dampé, what’s a 'birthday’?” Link asked as he came into the shack several days later, carrying a sack of provisions the old man had asked him to pick up from town. He’d walked by a large gathering of people in Kakariko, and they’d been singing the strangest song to a kid in a brightly colored, pointed hat.

The gnarly grave keeper turned a surprised eye to the boy, his brow raised skeptically. “A boy like you doesn’t know what a birthday is?”

Link shook his head, blinking up at him in confusion.

“Well…huh,” he frowned somewhat as he thought, turning his gaze to the counter to sort through the items in the bag. “It’s the day you were born. Ya know, like…the day you turn a year older.”

He was surprised to see the confusion on the boy’s face.

“Kokiri never grow up,” Navi pointed out from her spot on Link’s head. “So they don’t keep track of how many years old they are.”

“Yer kiddin, right?” Dampé demanded, squinting at the boy in disbelief. “You really never had a birthday party or anything like that?”

“Nuh uh,” Link replied with a shake of his head. “What’s so special about them?”

The old man’s forehead wrickled in bewilderment. Explaining birthdays to a child was something he never thought he’d have to do. “Well, ya see, it’s a celebration of you bein’ born. Of you existing.” He rubbed at his chin in thought. “Folks usually give ya presents, and ya usually have a party with your friends and family, and eat cake and stuff like that.”

“Cake?”

“Whaaaaat?” Dampé rounded on Link, his eyes wide. “You’ve never had _cake,_ either?! Boy, we’re gonna fix this, that’s for sure. What season is the first one you remember?”

Link hesitated, a little taken aback by the strength of the old man’s reaction. “Um…I…well…”

“C'mon, boy, think,” Dampé urged. “You said ya lived in the forest, right? The first time you saw trees, what’d they look like?”

“…they were bare,” Link recalled. “The ground was covered in leaves…”

“Hmph. That settles it then. From now on your birthday is late in the fall. So that’s when you’ll be trying cake.”

While he really had no idea what Dampé was talking about, Link’s blue eyes still grew large with excitement at the prospect. “Really?” he asked.

“Sure as I’m standin’ here,” the old man replied with a toothy grin. “Now go wash up before dinner.”

* * *

The next evening, Dampé and Link went outside to rake up some of the leaves that had started falling from the trees scattered throughout the cemetery. It all started out calmly enough, but Link was still very much a young boy, and it wasn’t very long before he started to get distracted by other little things. At one point he ran over to Dampé, holding out a frog he’d managed to catch. Dampé chuckled, only to laugh harder when the creature squirmed out of Link’s hands and managed to fall into the pile the old man had raked up. The boy dove for it without thinking, sending leaves flying everywhere.

There had been a time not long ago when Dampé would’ve gotten frustrated and angry, but now he couldn’t stop laughing. He even bent over to throw an armful of them at the boy as he looked up, earning a cry of laughter from the blond as well. For a good ten minutes after they wrestled and played in the brightly colored leaves, making a larger mess than they’d started with, but neither one of them caring. Even Navi joined in, managing to stuff a few down the back of Link’s tunic and giggling madly as he twisted and turned in a vain attempt to get the scratchy vegetation out.

Eventually both plopped down to lay in the grass, looking up at the steadily darkening sky as they caught their breath. Dampé’s cheeks ached from smiling so much; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had fun like that.

Once they’d both recovered, they got up and went inside, leaving the raking for another day.

They settled around the wood stove sipping tea, laughing and telling stories well into the night, and only when Link finally dozed in his seat did it all end. Dampé smiled slightly in grandfatherly affection, getting to his feet to gently lift the boy and carry him to his bed. Navi fluttered over and took her spot on the covers after he’d been tucked in, as the old grave-keeper snuffed out the lanterns before going to bed himself.

* * *

Another few carefree days trickled by, before Navi mentioned to Link and Dampé at breakfast that they still had one more stone to find. It was with a heart heavy with worry that Dampé packed a sack of food for the boy, knowing that was all he could really do to help him with the next leg of his adventure.

“You come back soon as you’re done, hear?” the old grave-keeper told him seriously as he handed the food over. “And be careful!”

“I will,” Link promised. He moved forward, hugging the old man again. And like that, he was gone, leaving an almost deafening silence over Dampé’s little corner of Hyrule.

He busied himself the best he could in the boy’s absence; he even went out to stock up on medical supplies, in case the boy came back banged up like he had before. With each passing day he found the worry harder to ignore, but he had no choice but to sit tight and wait.

And finally, when he thought he couldn’t stand another minute of solitude, he heard movement outside his door. Before he’d even had a chance to knock, Dampé had whipped it open, only to immediately reach and steady the exhausted boy on the other side.

Wordlessly, the old man guided Link to his bed, frowning in concern at how cold the boy felt. His clothes were still damp, and with fall wearing on towards winter, the weather had been growing steadily chillier. Only after he had the boy sitting with a blanket draped over his shoulders and broth warming on the stove did he finally ask what had happened.

“We found the stone,” Link replied through chattering teeth. “Up…up with the Zoras…” Dampé patiently listened as the boy recounted the tale, paling slightly in dismay at the thought of the boy being inside of a whale. It was almost impossible to believe, but it explained a few strange wounds on the boy’s body-injuries that looked more like burns than anything else.

“Dampé?” Link asked towards the end of his story, suddenly remembering something. “What’s an…'engagement ring’?”

The old man looked at him in surprise. “Well kid, it’s a ring that people give each other when they intend to marry that person.”

“Marry them?”

“Erm…well,” he rubbed the back of his neck, struggling to think of how to word it. “When two people love each other, they get married. They sort of promise to live together forever, and work together. Start a family. Stuff like that.”

Link blinked, looking a little taken aback.

“..why are ya’ askin’?”

“Um…Ruto said the stone was a Zora engagement ring.”

Dampé stared at him for a long moment, before bursting out into a loud, braying bout of laughter. “Oh son, you’re in for a storm, that’s fer sure. Gettin’ married to a Zora. Hahaha! That’s a riot.”

He got up, still chuckling to himself, and poured the broth into a mug to give the still shivery boy. “Drink up kiddo; it’ll help thaw ya out.”

Link did as he was told, sipping at the broth as Dampé returned to the stove to make something a little more hearty. The salty liquid slid down his scratchy throat easily, and he felt the warmth spread through him, easing the almost painful chill from his body. Navi, also tired from their journey, curled up on his pillow with relief.

By the time Dampé brought a bowl of stew over, the boy seemed revived, if drowsy with fatigue. Story told, he ate the offered food in near silence. Dampé didn’t mind it at all; he was merely relieved that Link wasn’t seriously hurt, and with all three stones, he hoped that was the end of the boy’s crazy adventures. “There, now,” he said, content to see Link’s bowl was empty when he was done. “You go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll take care of the dishes, tonight.”

Late that same night, a frightened cry jerked Dampé awake from a pleasant dream. “Whatn'a-huh?” he muttered, blinking heavily. Navi seemed to have been woken up by it as well, her light flickering as she drowsily looked around.

Link was twisted in his blankets, his eyes clenched tight in his sleep, his expression one of fear and distress. Frowning with worry, Dampé hurried out of bed and shuffled his way over to the boy, carefully gripping his shoulder to wake him. “Link. C'mon, kid-you’re dreaming.”

The boy startled awake with another cry, thrashing in his blankets for a confused and frightened moment before he seemed to see and recognize Dampé.

“It’s okay. You’re alright, now,” Dampé reassured insistently, watching the boy carefully. “It was just a dream.”

Shaking, the worst of the fear slow to fade, the blond clutched at the old man’s shirt, burying his face against Dampé’s chest. The old man’s heart felt heavy as he reached around to hug the boy to him, trying to comfort him the best he could. Knowing what he did about the kid, he really found he wasn’t entirely surprised by this. Heck, most children had nightmares even without being exposed to the very real monsters and tragedies that Link had been.

“There there. You’re alright, now,” he soothed gruffly. Navi settled on Link’s head, reaching down to pat his hair in an attempt to be comforting. Her wings drooped in concern, but she didn’t seem surprised, either.

After a few minutes, when the boy seemed to have calmed down, Dampé shifted a little to look down at him. “Wanna talk about it?” Link merely shook his head, clinging to the man as if he were the only thing keeping him from sinking back into whatever horrors he’d been reliving.

They stayed like that for a while longer, until Link’s grip finally relaxed and his breathing began to even out as he fell back to sleep. Dampé let out a soft breath of relief. Carefully he eased Link down onto his bed and took a moment to tuck him back in. “Did somethin’ worse happen, out there?” he asked the fairy quietly.

“Not really. No worse than the other things we’ve seen,” she replied softly. “…but he and the princess both have been having bad dreams, lately. They talked about it before she sent him after the stones.”

“Hmmm…” With a sigh, Dampé looked down at the boy again, checking to make sure his sleep was peaceful, before turning to go back to his own bed. Maybe with some more time, Link would find it easier to share that burden with him, but he was determined not to press until then.

* * *

The unlikely pair fell back into their old routine over the next week. While not as badly hurt as before, Link had still needed a little time to recuperate, and Dampé was secretly glad to have the boy’s company once again. Once he felt strong enough to make the walk though, the blonde boy brought up his imminent trip to Castle Town to deliver the stones.

“Alright,” Dampé replied with a small smile. He considered going with Link this time, but decided against it; this was actually the perfect opportunity to put his plan into motion. “Hurry back, though. I’ve gotta surprise for ya’.”

“Really?” Link’s eyes brightened with excitement. “What is it?”

The old man let out a loud laugh, shaking his head in affectionate exasperation. “If I told ya’, where’d the surprise be? Go on, now, sooner you get back the sooner you’ll find out.”

Link nodded, and waved, running off with Navi fluttering behind him, eager to complete his task and come back. With a grin, Dampé waited until he’d disappeared out of the graveyard before starting to set up. He expected it would be a short enough errand, and wanted everything to be ready by the time the boy returned.

First were the decorations; streamers of all sorts of bright, cheerful colors were tacked on the walls, and a green cloth set out to cover the dull brown of his table. The cake he pulled out of hiding had been frosted with care by the baker in town.

Lastly, the gift; a relatively small box, wrapped in blue paper and tied with a ribbon. Dampé had wondered whether it was a good idea to give the boy such a device-there was definitely some danger in using it-but he quickly shrugged the worry off. If Link was responsible enough to use a sword, he could handle the tool hidden away under the wrapping.

With nothing left to do but wait, Dampé headed back outside and started working on raking up the leaves again, hardly able to contain his excitement. He simply couldn’t wait to see the look on the boy’s face. His first birthday party… It would certainly be an afternoon to remember.

But as the hours wore on, and the sky began to darken with night with no sign of the boy, he felt some anxiety beginning to creep into his heart.

Maybe he was simply spending the night in the city; it was a pretty long walk for a young boy, after all. When it grew so late that he doubted Link would come back, Dampé turned in; the surprise could wait til morning.

But he couldn’t sleep. Something in the pit of his stomach kept his eyes from closing.

As the next day wore on, worry was eating away at him in full force, only to morph into a horrible, icy feeling of dread as citizens of Hyrule Castle Town began to trickle into the village, each looking as stunned and dazed as the last.

Castle Town attacked…the castle destroyed…

The old man clenched his jaw, grabbed his hat and coat, and left the cake and streamers behind as he made his way out. He had to see for himself…had to look.

It was a long ways for him to walk with his shuffling gate, but he was determined. If the boy was hurt, or hiding away somewhere, alone and afraid…

He staggered when he finally reached the shattered drawbridge, and had to steady himself with a hand on the stone wall to keep from collapsing in pure shock. Burned husks of buildings surrounded a cobblestone street stained with blood and ash, looking ready to collapse at the first strong breeze. There was no movement at all; no life…

No Link.

He started to call, not knowing what else to do. Only his own voice echoed back to him, but he didn’t stop, crying out the boy’s name until his voice grew hoarse. He sifted through the rubble, desperate for a sign. Anything that might tell him what had happened to Link.

Nothing.

Maybe he’d gone back…maybe he was waiting in Kakariko. It seemed so unlikely but it was the only hope he had to sustain him on the long walk back. But hours later, when his little shack was finally in sight, there was no sign of him. He threw open the door to his shack, looking around urgently, but only finding more stillness and silence.

Only then did he finally entertain his worst fears. Only then did his throat tighten, and he crumpled into his chair to weep.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks became months. The cake was eventually discarded, untouched-the decorations thrown away. But the box…the box remained, carefully set next to his desk, unopened, even as the color of the paper began to fade, bleached by sunlight and stained by a fine layer of dust.

And there it remained as the years passed, blurring from one to another. Even after Dampé stopped coming back, and the graveyard grew wild and unkempt, it sat there, until finally, the door slowly opened with a creak.

A blond young man poked his head inside, his eyes troubled and searching. He couldn’t wrap his head around what had happened, and even though Sheik had told him to come to Kakariko, he probably would’ve come here first, either way.

“Dampé?” he called, his voice unfamiliar to his own ears-deeper, older. Dust and cobwebs covered every inch of the shack, but he refused to consider what it meant. No…no, Dampé was his friend. He had to be here. He just had to be…

Death was a curious concept for the Kokiri. Sure, they had a general idea of what it was, and they feared it enough to stay hidden within their forest home, but it wasn’t something they had to deal with very often. Certainly not the idea of someone dying from being too old.

But as Link took in the abandoned, cold shack that he’d come to think of as his only safe haven, he felt the heaviness of grief sinking into his heart.

Dampé was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.

It was all just too much. The seventeen year old sunk down on the edge of the old man’s bed, his head in his hands. Hot tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, born of guilt and grief.

He’d never come back. Dampé must have waited for him…and he’d never come back. He’d never meant for this to happen.

He hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye.

Navi perched on his shoulder, one tiny hand reaching to touch his cheek in a silent sign of sympathy and comfort, her own light dim with sadness. Not even she had expected things to turn out this way-for her child to be thrust into the future so cruelly, with no warning.

Eventually, when he thought he had no tears left to spend, Link slowly got to his feet and wandered over to the desk. A small journal rested there; he couldn’t bring himself to read it just yet, but the small box did catch his attention. The lump in his throat came back with a vengeance as he lifted it up, recognizing his name written on the tag.

Slowly he tore it open, his vision blurring further. Inside was a metal contraption, with a sharp end and a spring loaded trigger, along with a card addressed to him. His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard before carefully opening it to read the message inside.

 _Happy birthday, kiddo! Here’s to many more. Be careful with this thing. I trust ya’, but still…there’s only so many injuries I can patch up! Your friend,_  
Dampé  


“Thank you,” Link whispered, his voice thick.

It was growing dark outside, but Link found himself moving along the stones anyways, a chisel in his hands as he searched for Dampé’s resting place. Eventually he found it, alone in the far corner of the graveyard. Vines had started to creep over it and the grass had grown tall and thick everywhere. No one had taken over in Dampé’s place, it seemed.

Carefully Link pulled the branches and leaves away, then knelt in front of the stone, his fingers lightly tracing over his friend’s name. There was nothing else written there-no one else to remember him. No family, nothing…

Stealing himself with a deep breath, Link rose the chisel to the stone and began the painstaking task of engraving, soon working with no light save for Navi’s soft glow as she silently watched.

The sky was just beginning to lighten with dawn by the time he’d finished, his hands raw and aching. Link looked over his work, exhausted, covered in stone dust, but feeling calmer now than he had before.

Underneath Dampé’s name was now a short message, written in a noticeably less-tidy scrawl than the name had been, but with ten times the heart:

_~Here rests my friend~_

Fin.


End file.
